Syntax Highlighting

One of Vim’s strongest enhancements to vi is
its syntax highlighting. Vim’s syntax formatting relies heavily on the
use of color, but it also degrades gracefully on screens that do not
support color. In this section we discuss three topics: getting
started, customizing, and rolling your own. Syntax highlighting for
Vim contains features that go beyond the scope of this book, so we
focus on providing enough information to get you familiar with it and
enable you to extend it to fit your needs.

Note

Because the impact of Vim’s syntax highlighting is most
dramatic in color, and this book isn’t (in color), we strongly
encourage you to try syntax highlighting to fully appreciate the
power of color in defining context. I have never met a user who
tried it and then did not continue to always use it.

Getting Started

Displaying a file’s syntax highlighting is simple. Just issue
the command:

:syntax enable

If all is well, and if you edit a file with a formal syntax,
such as a programming language, you should see text in various
colors, all determined by context and syntax. If nothing changed,
try turning syntax on:

:syntax on

Enabling syntax should be
enough by itself, but we have encountered situations where the
additional command was required to turn on the syntax
highlighting.

If you still see no syntax highlights, Vim may not know what
your file type is and thus not understand which syntax is
appropriate. There are a number of reasons this happens.

For example, if you create ...

The best content for your career. Discover unlimited learning
on demand for around $1/day.